Roly Veitch (gtr/vcl), Noel Dennis (tpt), Neil Harland (bs).Noel Dennis's trumpet playing has been justifiably compared to Chet Baker and early Miles Davis. Dressed in casual smart he looked every bit as much the cool dude as his alter ego's did in their youth. With this in mind it came as something of a culture shock to overhear him talking about 11 o' clock feeds for his baby boy.
Noel, dudes don't do that!
However, his image was given a get out of jail card when he started playing - this was Chet, Miles and a few more. Blowing his new Geneva Trumpet - made on Teesside - or was it a Teesside Trumpet made in Geneva? Whatever, the horn sounded good from the moment he blew an obbligato to Roly's vocal on "I'm Old Fashioned" to the plaintive wail on the final "Wee Small Hours of the Morning". Can't recall him sounding better.
This was an evening of sheer delight as gems were plucked from the Gasbook and given the trio's authoritive stamp many with vocals by Roly. His is an infectious voice, you hold your breath and wonder if he's going to make that top note - he always does.
Just look at some of the titles; "Days of Wine & Roses", "I've Got a Date With an Angel", "Stella By Starlight", "You Don't Know What Love Is", "Blue Monk" and "Bye Bye Blackbird" - the latter two dedicated to Marshall who, of course played in the early days with Roly at the Black Bull. Our boy's memory is everywhere this week and rightly so.
The second set opened with "You're a Lucky Guy" which Roly kindly played and sang for me totally unprompted. He knows my feelings about this tune - simply love it.
There were more goodies to follow. "Alone Together", "This Year's Kisses", "I Wished on the Moon" (another big fave), "My Funny Valentine" - more excellence from Noel - and penultimately "Now's The Time".
I've mentioned Noel and Roly, who used both acoustic and semi acoustic to great effect, but I must also applaud Neil who soloed tastefully and kept the whole thing together beautifully.
A decent sized crowd too.
Y'all get there for the next one on August 20 - this time with Paul Edis on piano and in the main auditoreum.
Lance.
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